CHAPTER 1
THE FIRST GENERATION
JAMES & FANNY, 1869 – 1905
JAMES JENNER (October 4, 1845 – March 29, 1919) AND
FANNY JENNER (January 16, 1848 – January 10, 1930)
The middle of the nineteenth century was a time of economic growth. The invention of the locomotive, the steamship and the telegraph, and the shift to city living and industrialization in Britain all combined to encourage emigration. In all history there had never been a mass movement of people to compare with the exodus from Europe between 1850 and 1914. More than 34 million people left Europe during that time, and a large portion of them came to Canada.
In 1868, my great-grandparents, James Jenner and Fanny Leech, were working as servants in Gloucester, England. That same year, the government of Great Britain drafted The Homestead Act, designed to encourage settlers from England to immigrate to central and north central Ontario. The economics of it were simple: Britain needed lumber and lots of it. Ships could bring loads of squared timber across to Britain, but it did not make sense to have those ships sail back empty. The answer was to encourage immigration to Canada. Besides filling ships for the return voyage to Canada, England was also seeking to increase the available labour pool to work in the logging industry. It was a perfect fit - the settlers would become property owners, responsible for clearing their own land, farming in the summer months and logging throughout the rest of the year, and Britain would get the timber it needed. With the promise of owning at least 200 acres of farmland, James and Fanny married (in Woolstone, England, near Gloucester) and set out for the new world. At the time, James was 23 years old and Fanny was just 21.
JAMES AND FANNY ARRIVE IN MUSKOKA, 1869
n April 22, 1869, the newlyweds James and Fanny boarded the S.S. Prussian steamship, which left Liverpool on its maiden voyage and arrived two weeks later in Quebec City, Canada. James and Fanny then travelled by train via Toronto to Barrie. From that point onwards, the closer they got to their new home stake, the tougher the travelling became.
From Barrie, they boarded a steamer, which took them to the north end of Lake Couchiching, at Washago. The next challenge was a bumpy stagecoach over the terrible road from Washago to Gravenhurst at the south end of Lake Muskoka. From Gravenhurst to Bracebridge was a relatively easy steamship ride; however, the next leg, heading north on the south-running Muskoka River with its six waterfalls between Bracebridge and Port Sydney, made traveling with any possessions impossible. Since Fanny had insisted on bringing as much as possible with them, even carrying with her a large, cast iron pot, which she called a kettle, the pair was forced to travel via horse-drawn stagecoach on the rough corduroy roads from Bracebridge to Utterson.
The final leg of their journey was a stagecoach from Utterson to Port Sydney. Fortunately, John McAlpine, the first owner of the Port Sydney sawmill, was there to greet them and paddle them across the Muskoka River to their property.
As they approached their new Mary Lake home stake, young James and Fanny saw a pretty, sixteen acre valley in the center of their two hundred acre grant. It was quite different from the flat English farmland they were used to; the valley was covered with a heavy forest and huge white pines that would prove to make farming very difficult.
One of the first things James and Fanny did once they arrived in Muskoka was to build a log cabin. They were able to deal with John McAlpine by advancing him $80 to buy the first saw for his mill. In return, Jenner was to receive the first lumber cut, for a floor for his log cabin. The majority of the new settlers arriving in Port Sydney spent their first winter in one-room log cabins with no insulation and an open fire for heat. In mid-winter, the cabin temperature would often drop below freezing.
In 1870, one year after arriving in Muskoka, James' crop consisted of ten bushels of rye wheat, 50 bushels of potatoes, and 150 bushels of turnips. He reported owning no livestock. The census of 1871 showed that within the first two years of living in Canada, James had improved at least ten acres. He would eventually acquire livestock and build a barn.
Also in 1870, James and Fanny celebrated the birth of their first child, Frederick James. Their second child, Alfred Ernest, was born in 1872. Five more children followed soon after: Robert, born in 1874; Ida, born in 1875; Roland, born in 1880; Alice, born in 1881; and Charles, born in 1884.
Adjusting to their new life in Muskoka took some time. Some of the following stories were taken from the book, Pioneer Days in Muskoka, which included a collection of essays by the descendants of the original Mary Lake settlers. Ida (Jenner) Casselman, James and Fanny's fourth child, contributed to the collection.
During their first year in Port Sydney, James bought a dug-out canoe made from a large white pine log for ten dollars from Jerry Hanes in Utterson. On October 4, 1869, after spending the afternoon with their friends William and Emilie Thoms (who had also travelled to Canada on the S.S. Prussian steamship), James and Fanny left for home in the little log canoe. It suddenly began to snow, and not long after, James and Fanny found themselves completely lost on the lake in a heavy snowstorm. After having paddled for hours, they finally reached land, and to their dismay, realized they were right back where they started. The Thoms' welcomed them back in and the Jenners stayed the night.
The settlers on Mary Lake were surrounded by wildlife: wild geese, deer, pigeons, flying squirrels, lynx, fox and bear. In her book, Casselman tells of one settler, who, upon hearing a lynx cry out in the night for the first time, thought it was a person yelling for help. He bravely took his shotgun and started through the dense woods seeking to help the distressed person. He was surprised when told the next day that he had been following a wild cat. When yet another settler first heard the deep sound of a bullfrog, he sat up all night with his rifle ready to defend his family.
Casselman also wrote that in the early days, a number of Indians camped around the lakes. A feeling of fright was experienced when one or more suddenly appeared at a settler's door. The children were brought to sudden obedience when told the Indians would get them if their conduct was otherwise than good.
Aside from building the cabin, the Homestead Act laid out additional requirements that James and Fanny had to fulfill. They were simple requirements, but they were strictly...
